Today marks my 10th anniversary of joining the Hatrack River Forum. Or, to be precise, ten years ago today I joined the "new forum", the then-newfangled UBB forum software that was to supplant the Big Mouth Lion section of Hatrack River. I remember names like D. Michael Martindale, Morgan Majors, and Tom Davidson from that time.

I discovered the old BML forums on hatrack.com during my freshman year in college. I guess my coursework wasn't keeping me busy enough. I'd heard about OSC's home on AOL (back in the dark days), and I think I'd even visited it once or twice, but this was the first time I participated. The first thing I did when I found Hatrack was read through all of the archived posts. Yep, all of them. I was fascinated: here were people passionately discussing topics that I had barely even thought about before; they disagreed, they attempted to persuade each other and as a rule failed, and yet they still came back for more. And they were civil. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.

I don't remember if I ever even posted on the old forum. I think I did. For a while the new and old forums were running concurrently, and there was a push to migrate over, which was met with some dissension in the ranks. Not having a whole lot to hold on to in the old forum, I was an early adopter in the new. Eventually the old forum's accounts were migrated en masse[1].

I was young and inexperienced, and I thought I knew a lot. I was smart. And so I got into a couple of minor clashes in the early days of the new forum. Of course I failed to change any minds, which was discouraging in a way. I became a lurker, only popping out in the occasional fluff thread, and there were many long gaps during which I wouldn't even visit the site (I guess my coursework was on the heavier side at times). Once in a while I would see a comment that I absolutely had to respond to, but half the time I'd just discard my half-written post. There were threads on who was the lurkiest lurker five or six years ago, and I'd always be near the top.

But then something happened. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think it had to do with letting go of the need to be 100% right and accurate about everything I said. It was gradual. But I began to post more, and not just in the fluff threads. I got into a few arguments and came out unscathed. (I don't get into many arguments anymore — I think I'm too reasonable — but that's another post.)

A whole lot's happened in my life in the last ten years (shocker!), but Hatrack has been a solid undercurrent throughout. It's hard to imagine where I would be without Hatrack's influence; I can say with some confidence that I'm in a better place because of it. Thank you all!

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[1] I did some detective work some time ago, and here's what appears to have happened: from September 15, 1998 through April 23, 1999, thirteen names were registered (Tod OConnellRobot DCliftySteve BensonHenrik NilssonTroubadouryossarianMikeKarl MuellerShogunStephen KSTEPHEN SYWAKYozh). Notice the member numbers are out of order. That's because some time between April 23 and May 14 a mess of names were brought over from the old forum, probably 108 of them, though for some reason only 72 remain. These are the ones whose registration dates are "A Long Time Ago!". After this migration, the names were alphabetized, case-sensitive: Aaron through Yozhik, then ak through yossarian. My guess is that the old forums were shut down on May 14, 1999, as there is a large influx of new accounts starting that day, and these accounts begin right at the end of the alphebetized accounts.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on January 26, 200904:00 PM:

It was something that D. Michael posted that finally spurred me to register after a month or so of lurking.

quote:The first thing I did when I found Hatrack was read through all of the archived posts. Yep, all of them.

I did the exact same thing. When I discovered the place BML had been closed, but not for very long. The forums on that software were still readable.

quote:I was fascinated: here were people passionately discussing topics that I had barely even thought about before; they disagreed, they attempted to persuade each other and as a rule failed, and yet they still came back for more. And they were civil. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.

That's such a great description of it. In my case I thought that I'd thought through a lot of stuff that I really hadn't. It was kind of startling, realizing how shallowly explored some of my opinions were.

quote:A whole lot's happened in my life in the last ten years (shocker!), but Hatrack has been a solid undercurrent throughout. It's hard to imagine where I would be without Hatrack's influence; I can say with some confidence that I'm in a better place because of it. Thank you all!

Thanks for the landmark, hopefully it will be read by other people who come across the forum. Posted by adenam (Member # 11902) on January 26, 200906:16 PM:

quote:I was fascinated: here were people passionately discussing topics that I had barely even thought about before; they disagreed, they attempted to persuade each other and as a rule failed, and yet they still came back for more. And they were civil. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.

This is exactly what convinced me to join. Hopeflly I'll still be here in 10 years too.Congratulations!
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on January 26, 200906:22 PM:

quote:I was fascinated: here were people passionately discussing topics that I had barely even thought about before; they disagreed, they attempted to persuade each other and as a rule failed, and yet they still came back for more. And they were civil. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.

This is exactly what convinced me to join. Hopeflly I'll still be here in 10 years too.Congratulations!

I joined because I didn't believe that such a thing was actually viable. I still don't get it.
Posted by amira tharani (Member # 182) on January 27, 200911:33 AM:

Happy Anniversary, Mike! It's great that there are so many of us from the BML days still here - and that the things that attracted you to Hatrack in the first place are still very much in evidence even though we have grown so much in size from those days.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on January 27, 200911:37 AM:

quote:Originally posted by Orincoro:I joined because I didn't believe that such a thing was actually viable.

From one oldie to another - Happy Anniversary! I've been here that long too but can't remember the exact day. I mostly lurk but this place has been a haven for me in some really difficult times. Thank you OSC for providing such a great place for this community to grow!
Posted by Omega M. (Member # 7924) on January 27, 200912:00 PM:

I'm surprised there are so many ancients here who have posted so little. Have you all been visiting the board regularly, or have you ignored it for years at a time?
Posted by BelladonnaOrchid (Member # 188) on January 27, 200912:37 PM:

I usually post for awhile and when it seems like all the threads are the same, I ignore the board for awhile and come back. I do find myself lurking quite a bit, though.

Eta: I do miss ak. Posted by EmpSquared (Member # 10890) on January 27, 200912:45 PM:

quote:Originally posted by Omega M.: I'm surprised there are so many ancients here who have posted so little. Have you all been visiting the board regularly, or have you ignored it for years at a time?

My first sn was around member number 1500, and my total post count is probably around 1300. I went into a pretty heavy lurker mode for a few years.
Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on January 27, 200901:13 PM:

ak is still here, she just posts under a different name.

quote:Originally posted by Wendybird:Thank you OSC for providing such a great place for this community to grow!

I'll echo that. I hope he continues to do so for a long time to come.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on January 27, 200901:20 PM:

quote:Originally posted by BelladonnaOrchid:

Eta: I do miss ak.

She's posting under the name Tatiana, these days, and is still fairly active.
Posted by Sharpie (Member # 482) on January 27, 200901:25 PM:

quote:Originally posted by Omega M.: I'm surprised there are so many ancients here who have posted so little. Have you all been visiting the board regularly, or have you ignored it for years at a time?

I've been a lurker my whole life. I was the kid on the sidelines on the playground with the book in her face .

I myself have been here since 2000, under different names. I've forgotten about the board for several years at a time.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on January 27, 200902:09 PM:

What names have you posted under?
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on January 27, 200903:14 PM:

I started in 2000 as well, with the name jRc. I just passed 8 years here. I would say my posting amount has gone down considerably in the last few years. I've been pretty PO'd at Hatrack a few times and have left, some times for many months, but so far I've always come back. The other posters are right--there are very few places on the intarwebs like Hatrack.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on January 27, 200903:20 PM:

I signed up in June of '99, posting as Jake, but I didn't really allow much of my personality to come through in my posts until I adopted my current screenname.

I've never actually left Hatrack because I was angry at it. I've left because I was sick of it, or because I was spending too much time posting and felt like I was neglecting my job, or because I was depressed and it just felt like keeping up with the threads required too much energy, but never because of anger.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on January 27, 200904:57 PM:

Great post, Mike. I really enjoyed meeting you IRL, and I usually enjoy your posts here at Hatrack as well,as few as tehy are at times.

I love this place, although I don;t come here or post as often as I use to, mainly for the same reasons you mentioned.

I didn't have a computer for the first 2 years I posted here, as hard as that is to believe. I used my parents computer when I went to go see them, or went to a friends....or mostly went to the library.

Several of my long held beliefs have changed over the years because of conversations that started here and my interactions with some of the people here. I have been given good practical advice on a number of occasions, but even more important I have always felt welcome here.

No matter what weird hours my lack of regular sleep provides, Hatrack is always open. I have based thousands of dollars of purchases on advice given here, fixed hundreds of computer problems, and learned completely new areas of research because of conversations I have read here.

I am glad you are still a part of this community, for all it;s changes, and I wish you another happy 10 years of posting. Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on January 27, 200909:48 PM:

I'm pretty sure Mike's the one who introduced me to hatrack our junior year of college. I used to write under Suneun but swapped to dabbler later on. Unlike him, I treaded deeply into very controversial topics early on, and am now much more lurkerish.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on January 28, 200910:01 AM:

You ever post under any other names, Mike?

and congrats on the anniversary post!
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on January 28, 200901:41 PM:

Cool beans. Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on January 28, 200903:50 PM:

quote:Originally posted by Sharpie:Old habits NEVER die.

My ten-year is coming up this year, too!

Edit to fix my rudeness: congrats on the anniversary!

You'd be surprised, sometimes old habits do change. I surprise myself sometimes. I'm looking forward to more 10-year landmarks in the coming year. And, no rudeness at all; thank you.

quote:Originally posted by advice for robots: I started in 2000 as well, with the name jRc.

I remember that name.

quote:Originally posted by Kwea: Great post, Mike. I really enjoyed meeting you IRL...

I'm pretty sure Mike's the one who introduced me to hatrack our junior year of college. I used to write under Suneun but swapped to dabbler later on. Unlike him, I treaded deeply into very controversial topics early on, and am now much more lurkerish.

Yep, though I'm pretty sure you'd heard of Hatrack before I got you to join.

quote:Originally posted by Farmgirl: You ever post under any other names, Mike?

I have a couple of alts, but I never use 'em. I have a hard enough time keeping this account's post count up!